Growing Old
by singingstarryknights
Summary: Nora teases Greg about his very first gray hair. Number 27 in the Ducks in a Row series.


Growing Old

Nora teases Greg about his very first gray hair

Number 27 in the Ducks in a Row series.

………

Greg Sanders stood at the stove top in the kitchen of their house on Harris Street, intent on making pancakes for Nora before she left for school. Sara had gone straight to the shower in their bathroom, after snatching a handful of lemons from the fridge. Fortunately, Greg had had a DB of his own, and even more fortunately, it was fresh, unlike Sara and Nick's catastrophe of a floater decomp out at Lake Mead. He had been looking forward to a morning with his daughter all night.

He had just poured the batter into the skillet when Nora came down the hallway, her stick straight blonde hair swept up and away from her face in a ponytail, clad in one of his old Nirvana tee shirts that Sara had made him stop wearing in public years ago, and a pair of LVPD running shorts.

"Hi, Daddy." She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, coming over to him to drop a kiss to his cheek affectionately. "Uck." She crinkled her nose, and he knew she was smelling Sara's decomp. "Who had the decomp?"

"Your mother. Fortunately." He grinned at her, checking the underside of the pancake. "My DB was at least fresh," She returned his smile, reaching up to retrieve the chocolate chips from the cupboard.

"Did you save Las Vegas from the dangers of the night, Dad?"

"That's why they pay me the big bucks." She rolled her eyes, setting the bag of chocolate on the counter. She peered closely at her father, squinting her eyes at his hair.

"What?" He shot her an inquisitive look, and flipped the pancakes.

"You're old, Daddy."

"Not as old as Mom."

"Yeah but she doesn't have a gray hair."

"I take it you found one."

"I can pull it out, no one would know."

"No, leave it." Greg sighed, and leaned over to press a kiss to his only daughter's forehead before returning his attention to the skillet. "You're the one who put it there."

"_Dad_!"

"Besides, I've been waiting most of my adult life to grow gray hair."

"You people are weird."

"Always have been." He tossed a few pancakes on a plate, and handed it to Nora before pouring more batter into the skillet. She took the plate silently, and kissed him shoulder in thanks as she maneuvered around him to the fridge, fishing around for the butter.

"Put lemons on the grocery list, Mom used them all." He nodded not taking his eyes from the batter in the skillet. She glanced at an invitation sitting on the island before smearing a trace amount of butter on her pancakes and returning the tub to the fridge. "When did you get the invite to the fancy party?"

"Um, a few days ago." He glanced over his shoulder at the delicate invitation she was turning over in her hand. "Grissom's retiring."

"No _way_." Her voice had a scandalized quality that made him chuckle.

"Yeah. Ecklie is promoting Warrick, and opening the spot as a level one position."

"That means finally someone in that lab will be under fifty."

"Hey, there was a time when we were all under fifty." He flipped the pancakes, and turned to grin at his daughter. "Besides, I'm only forty-nine." Nora rolled her eyes at her father.

"Same difference, Dad." She considered her father's laughing form with a duplicate of her mother's arched eyebrow, before taking a bite of pancakes and tossing the card on the counter. "Bug man must be all overwhelmed. He's not one to take the center stage."

"He doesn't know, it's a surprise. Don't screw it up."

"Please, Dad. I'm not Hodges." Sara entered the kitchen, freshly showered, and smelling instead of dead person, like lemons with a hint of dead person. Greg accepted the kiss she pressed to his lips, handing her a mug of chamomile tea, and she turned her attention to her daughter.

"So, big date tonight." Sara sat on a stool, grinning at Nora.

"Mom, please. Its just a movie with Jack." Nora pushed a lock of blonde hair behind her shoulder, reaching for the orange juice. Greg scooped the pancakes out of the skillet, placing a plate in front of Sara.

"Who, incidentally, has no criminal record, and has yet to receive so much as a parking violation in the state of Nevada." Greg speared a fork into the side of his and Sara's stack of pancakes, and grinned proudly at his daughter. At her death glare, also identical to Sara's, Greg shrugged, taking another bite of pancake. "What? I asked him, like a normal father." Nora smiled at him, satisfied that he wasn't lying to her.

"Fine, fine." She glanced at the clock, putting the last bite of her breakfast in her mouth, clearing the plate into the sink. "I have to run, Mr. Kimmler fired my vase and mug yesterday, I want to see if they're ready before homeroom." She disappeared down the hall to change into school clothes. Sara leaned back against the back of the bar stool, a smirk across her face.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you didn't run his prints." Greg returned her smile, and stabbed a bite of pancake with a clump of chocolate chips. "Greg!" Sara sighed heavily. "You have to let go. She's seventeen." He leaned over their plate of pancakes, and kissed her softly. "She'll hate you forever."

"I swear I only ran his DNA through CODIS. Nothing more." At her arched eyebrow, he sighed. "I collected skin epithelials off that hoodie he left here. And saliva from a Pepsi can, just in case."

"She really likes him, Greg."

"I know. But she's my baby." He turned away from his wife, peering down the hall.

"Thanks for dinner." She smiled at him, tangling her fingers in the wavy hair at the base of his neck. Her soothing motions made him groan softly, and close his eyes.

"God I love it when you do that." She chuckled, stopping suddenly.

"Gregory."

"Mmhmm." He turned to face her, the playful sparkle in his eye making him appear thirty again for a mere moment. She was peering at his hair much like Nora did twenty minutes before. "Oh, yeah, Nora called me old, didn't understand why I didn't want to pluck it out." He figured she had found his gray hair.

"Oh, Greg." Sara sat back, hand to her mouth. When she met his gaze, there were tears in her eyes. Immediately, the mischevious expression on Greg's face disappeared, and in its place, weary concern.

"What's the matter, love?" Greg pushed curls away from her face, laying his hand to her cheek. She smiled at him, dismissing his concern. "Sara?"

"You have a gray hair."

"Yeah, I figured as much." He grinned at her, and bent to kiss her cheek.

"Gregory, stop." She laughed softly, raching out to touch the strand of silvery white hair.

"I don't know about it, though. I mean, gray hair suits Grissom, and Hodges. Nick looks good with it, too, but me, I mean, I'm the baby of the lab. I can't be having gray hairs."

"You pull that white hair out or color it in anyway and I'll divorce you." Sara's deadly serious expression made Greg laugh. He stepped closer, coming to stand between her thighs as she sat on the bar stool, and pressed a lingering kiss to her lips.

"I've waited too long to have a gray hair. I'm not touching it."

"I love gray hair."

"I know."

"When Nora leaves for school I'll have to show you just how much I love gray hair." There was a playful sparkle in Sara's eyes, and she smiled up at Greg lovingly.

"That girl needs to get her ass out of this house." Greg dropped a sweet kiss to Sara's lips, and pulled away quickly, collecting dirty dishes and piling them in the sink.

"It wouldn't kill you to be patient, you know."

"Patient, Sara, if you remember correctly, is my middle name." Greg flashed her a childish grin before casting his gaze down the hallway.

"You have all your stuff?"

"Dad. Please. Senior in high school, not senior citizen." Nora reentered the kitchen, her blonde hair swept out of her eyes in a french braid, wearing a pair of worn in jeans, converses, and a soccer hoodie from school. Sara smiled, reading the sleeve, 'Capt. Sanders.' She threw her book bag over her shoulder casually, and grinned at Greg.

Like father like daughter. Sort of.

"I'll call you when I get home tonight, ok?" Greg nodded, and Nora stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

"Have a good day, love."

"Bye Dad. Bye Mom." With a wave, Nora had disappeared into the living room, and then the front door opened and closed. Greg moved the dishes from the sink to the dishwasher as Sara listened for the engine in Nora's little beat up Corolla to start up. Hearing her daughter pull out of the driveway, Sara stood, drained the rest of her tea, and left the kitchen, tossing a suggestive grin at Greg.

………

"D'you think we made the right decision staying on nights?" Sara asked, mumbling into Greg's chest, their breathing almost back to normal. She traced nonsense figures on his stomach, before propping her head up on an elbow to face him. Greg propped his head up on a pillow, and ran his fingers through her curly, disheveled hair.

"We never really had much of an option." He tightened his grip on her, and she rolled over on top of him. She pressed her hips gently against him, causing him to groan.

"We having a serious conversation or are we having more sex?"

"Can't we do both?" Sara teased, smiling at him like she used to when he was her student.

"I'm a long ways from being young enough to be able to do that, and you know it."

"What? Can't handle it?" He groaned and twisted away from her, and she let him roll away. He rolled over on his stomach, but propped up his head, and reached from her hand with his own.

"I thought you didn't consider sex a sport, Sidle."

"It's not. I just love you." She stated simply, rolling over on her back on his side of the bed to stare at the ceiling.

"I know that." He tugged on her hand, and she cuddled up to him. They tangled their legs together, and Greg draped an arm over her stomach, resting his head in the crook of her neck. "Can we stay like this forever?" He mumbled, and she smiled at the vibration of his voice against her bare shoulder.

"At least until Nora gets home from school." He chuckled, and pressed a kiss to her collarbone. "Should we have transferred to days?"

"Are you kidding me?" Greg cocked an eyebrow at her. "It's a little late for that now, love."

"We could have been there so much more for Nora."

"We did the best we could, Sara. She turned out fine."

"Yeah." Sara sighed, turning her head to face the shelf with a selection from Nora's hundreds of art projects. "She's all my dreams come true."

"We just do things a little differently, that's all."

"I want to be home when she gets home tonight, and sit on her bed in pajamas and talk about her date. She's going to come home to an empty house, Greg."

"So tell Grissom you aren't coming in." Instantly he smiled at the scandalized expression on her face.

"I can't do that Greg, I have a decomp to sort out."

"She always comes to the lab to tell us all about her day anyway, Sara. And you'll see her off, She's not leaving until six."

"She's going to leave next fall, and I'll have missed out." Sara's eyes started to water, and Greg frowned, gently wiping away her tears with the pad of his thumb.

"Everybody has to work, Sara." There was a hint of laughter in his voice, and she smiled, embarrassed at her minor break down. "We did a good job with her."

"I hope so."

"If we had nine to five jobs, sure, we would have had more children. But that means that we love Nora that much more." She nodded, wanting to believe him.

"I don't want her to think that we let her down."

"We didn't let her down, Sara. She's still speaking to us." He grinned at her boyishly, and she choked out a laugh, pressing a kiss to his lips.

"D'you think she's happy?"

"Mmhmm."

"Gregory?"

"Mmhmm."

"Thanks." She tightened her grip on him, pressing a kiss to his temple. He climbed on top of her like he used to when they were first married, making her laughter fill the room. Sara closed her eyes as Greg left a trail of kisses along her neck and chest. They may be growing old together, but they weren't that old yet.

………

A/N: had a lot of fun with this one… just fluff, really. Just because.


End file.
